Tiger Tiger burning bright
In the forest of the night
what immortal hand or eye
could frame thy fearful symmetry

The Tiger is Red John.

And then... further on..

When the stars threw down their spears
And wat'rd heaven with their tears
Did he smile His work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

There's more to the poem of course... But... The last line is telling. The "lamb" is the cult, Visualize. It offers techniques against rage and aggression, and is against things like brainwashing, a fairly peaceful cult.

The poem basically is about god's creation of the fearsome, deadly heart of the tiger, and marvels at how god could have created such a wicked, evil creature, while also creating the gentle lamb. In this case, "god" is not an immortal being, but rather, the creator of Visualize, Bret Stiles.

So, who is the Tiger? A rogue member of visualize. Ray Haffner is a confirmed member of Visualize. Unless someone else has been a member of visualize, he is the only one that fits the riddle of this poem. .

Next, we have the line... "Red John Likes the Cold"
This is likely a riddle as well.

It may be hinting that Red John's name is the same as some place that's very cold. If that's so, then, there's a place in Canada called "Haffner Creek". It's an ice climbing site. I couldn't find anything similar for the other suspects.

Finally, Ray Haffner also fits much of Red John's profile, without being completely obvious.

first lets go back to the list. It s quite  obvious that jane has another list in mind  as I cant see any of them being red john .
This list is just a bait because he needed to bring red john into the light again, but also the 7 suspects could be for him possible red john 's associates.
That s why he is checking them carefully.

red john is walter mashburn.

I found this guy quite intriguing ,even too obvious to be Red John at the beginning . But none of the 7 suspects are smart enough to be red john.
red john is a real psychopath, cold blood, narcissist, thinking hes more clever than anybody ,he wouldnt pretend to be a fool, this would damage his pride.
he wouldnt show any weaknesses , he has to be in control, always one step ahead.
You can feel mashburn is bored in his confortable life ,he has everything money can provide and murdering people gives him the thrill.
red john has a lot of connections , lots of leverage (money can buy nearly anything)  . 

a few clues in the mix :
- patrick jane made a very good portrait of mashburn ,and walter found this description very appropriate and was flattered ,being a narcissist . at this stage, patrick was describing a psychopath 
- mashburn was once talking about previous relationships  (or victims) ,talking about one being a psychic (krystyna frye ) 
- the blood on the wall , "he is ma"shburn would fit 
- stated  " maybe next time im the killer" in one episod, meaning that he would kill again. 
- when patrick killed the fake red john, he simulated a severe depression to reveal the real one again. when mashburn decided to try to bring patrick on his side he sent lorelei. she mentionned 2 important clues , stating they could have been friends and that they shook hands . In the few episods we ve seen, they were getting quite well with each other, both being intrigued, surprised or challenged.
- They look alike, both are charming, cuning, dominating the others. this is about the perfect symetry in the poem , seeing a reflection of their own in the mirror.
- eventually walter managed to get lisbon , he could have seen her as a  game of their rivalry.thats why patrick cannot trust lisbon anymore as he found out about their affair, even if he still has feeling for her.
thats also why mashburn didnt kill her in episod1 because he is still using her against patrick.

While I would like to RJ to be Bret Stiles, there's one thing throwing me off about that, and it was the same reason I dismissed McAllister.  The psychiatric notes described RJ as "middle-aged".  While I might cut a little slack to someone terming McAllister middle-aged, Malcolm McDowell is 70 years old.  He's not ancient, but I can't imagine anyone in their right mind would consider 70 "middle-aged".

Also going back to Ray, the blood on the wall said "He is man".  At the time of the episode airing, I joked around that it really said "Heisman" and O.J. Simpson was the murderer.  But Ray has what looks like a Heisman trophy in his office so I'm wondering if I may have been correct in reading "Heisman" all those years ago.

I give up with a serious suspect, Heller is leading us all on a wild goose chase, and i'm getting fed up of suspecting everyone shown onscreen. 

So, i'm going to be silly. We know RJ is basically another version of PJ, so lets assume that he too is australian. We know that he has great hunting instincts, is skilled outdoors and is very good with a knife.


At the end of "Red Sky in the Morning", we see that RJ kills the copycats in a very skilled manner, almost as if he's saying "That's not how you kill someone mate, this is how you kill someone"

RJ is Crocodile Dundee